Stimulation of benzodiazepines by various ligands can elicit opposite types of responses such as proconvulsant and anticonvulsant or anxiogenic and anxiolytic. In order to answer whether a new class of drugs belong to benzodiazepine (anxiolytic), beta-carboline (anxiogenic) or RO 15-1788 (antagonist) type of ligand we have developed a behavioral animal model that predicts the anxiogenic and anxiolytic potency of a drug.